Local sign shops and graphic artists in New Bern are being left out of the campaign race for city elections this year.

For years and several elections, candidates on shoestring budgets have opted to go online for deals on campaign signs.

Fred Alger, graphic artist and co-owner of 3 Guys Signs on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, said only one of the 23 city candidates, Ashley Smith running for a Board of Aldermen seat in Ward 6, has inquired about campaign signs, but made no order.

Al Waring, owner of Waring Sign Co. on U.S. 17, said he has received no orders for campaign signs, but didn’t really expect to.

“A lot of times they go on the Internet and buy signs for a tenth of the price it would cost us to produce,” Waring said.

Waring said he hasn’t received any campaign sign orders in 14 years.

“I can’t blame them,” he said. “They can get them so cheap through the Internet.”

Wayne King, owner of Signs Galore in New Bern, also has received no orders for campaign signs.

King said some national sign shops get names of candidates from local boards of elections and mails them advertisements offering deals on campaign signs.

“They look at that and say ‘That’s not a bad price,’” King said. “But they don’t call us to compare the price….They would find out they would get just as good a price locally (by not having the signs shipped).”

King, who has owned Signs Galore for 43 years, said during big elections he doesn’t get many calls inquiring about campaign signs. He gets more sign requests from Jones County during elections than Craven County, he said.

“It’s bad,” he said. “You’ve got people campaigning for a local board and they don’t want to support local business.”

King said it would be a boost for local sign shops if local candidates bought from them.

“As many shops as we’ve got around right now — if each just got one order out of the entire election,” he said. “Anything helps nowadays the way the economy is.”

Eddie Fitzgerald can be reached at 252-635-5675 or at eddie.fitzgerald@newbernsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @staffwriter3.